It’s not just TNT Sport struggling
Sky sports has recently been offered for free to new customers. Existing customers can get it for £20. In theory ‘full price’ is £30
Looks like the whole Warner Discovery thing will change eventually as the merger is unwinding:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jun/09/warner-bros-discovery-breakup-cnn-hbo
I naively thought the way I watched the DH last year via my sky box and the discovery app would work, but then for the first race, found it behind the TNT paywall, so went and did something else to spend my afternoon with no intention of watching the highlights as I like the full show and seeing full runs and how it unfolds, plus social media will tell me who won.
Races 2 and 3 were on when I've been out, before I'd have not checked any social media and watched the replay, but chatting to friends who've done the same, when you watch the replay, the timeline bar for DH shows you when the winning run was, essentially removing the drama of is the time good enough to stay in the hot seat or will anyone beat it.
Now its been 3 races I've not watched and have now lost interest in the DH and actually unfollowed a few racers too, I've also not watched a cathro vision, vital raw or wyn tv this year where as I would watch everything that came out before.
Its not that I've lost interest in bikes, I've still been riding and consuming other media, I guess I am that classic example of if you put something behind a paywall, people either commit or stop, sure I cant be the only one!
I used to watch WEC on Discovery+ - I now pay to watch direct on the WEC app.
Take LeMans this weekend - £31 if you wanted watch on TNT Sports for a months access - against £16 for a LeMans weekend pass, or £43 for the remainder of the WEC season.
Or if you're not fussed about watching live WEC post full race replays on YouTube for free...
https://www.youtube.com/@FIAWEC/videos
This is exciting, I'm in a minority at last! I renegotiated my Virgin media deal back in February and got 18 months of TNT added for free. I'm actually watching more cycling now than I ever did. I've never watched DH or XC racing before but with the extra fixed cameras and those drone shots... Wow!
Still love my road racing for the drama and tactics but I'm really enjoying the mountain biking, even if I need to watch it from behind the sofa as it's so scary.
C.
I guess I am that classic example of if you put something behind a paywall, people either commit or stop, sure I cant be the only one!
There was a bit of discussion about the low attendance figures at the Silverstone MotoGP, which came after a record breaking attendance at the Le Mans round. MotoGP coverage has been behind a paywall in the UK for 12 years now, and we are now seeing the result. People stop watching it on TV, and eventually you don't have enough fans left to attend the actual races.
There was a bit of discussion about the low attendance figures at the Silverstone MotoGP, which came after a record breaking attendance at the Le Mans round. MotoGP coverage has been behind a paywall in the UK for 12 years now, and we are now seeing the result. People stop watching it on TV, and eventually you don't have enough fans left to attend the actual races.
I think the issue is that many sports now seem to be aiming themselves at people who watch 'sport' in general rather than people who are interested in a sport.
Various high up people in mountain biking have been pretty clear that their target audience is people who are looking for something to watch between MotoGP and the football and the hope is that DH will be that thing that holds their attention long enough for the football to start.
I like cycling and that's it. I used to follow rugby but since they started buggering around with paywalls I've pretty much given up on that. Cycling is what I do so it's what I like to watch.
GCN+ was the perfect solution for me. I could watch the stuff that I really wanted to watch and if I wanted something to have on in the background while I was working on the bikes then there was always a race or film I could stick on.
Every sport seems to be targeting general sport watchers now rather than people who like one particular sport.
Sadly we (ie, people who like bikes) just aren't the target audience anymore.
Just a handy reminder for anyone wincing at the full price.
Pick a country from here that has MTBWS TV listed.
https://ucimtbworldseries.com/watch
VPN to a said country and go to https://watch.ucimtbworldseries.com
Sign up to watch for between five and six quid a month.
I've not really missed it. I would have watched the Giro, XCO and classics had I still had discovery. Certainly the cafe chat has changed. Less people know what's going on in the various races than last year. So I'd agree, people have just found other things to do.
Sporting events/series/races whatever costs a huge amount of money to put on, I've 'resigned' myself to the fact that if I want to watch the sport I'm interested in, I have to pay for an entry ticket. It was pretty easy for me to decide that I'd rather watch cycling events than Netflix, so that's what I did.
Hilarious that they've announced a night Enduro at La Thuile
Comments along the lines of we can't watch it anyway so it may as well be in the dark😂
“People stop watching it on TV, and eventually you don't have enough fans left to attend the actual races.“
I think, regarding Moto GP, there was more to it than that, not least that it was moved from its usual slot in August to May, but the price of tickets being the main reason, it was mentioned in commentary.
Greed.
For years, Suzi Perry et al on Eurosport, BT Sport and now TNT have harped on about Moto GP being great because it’s not Formula 1, and yet with Liberty Media taking over control that’s precisely the circus they want to turn it into. Investment will be ‘flooding in’ and guess what chaps, they’ll all want a return on that investment
‘As of 2025, Liberty Media is set to own three global motorsport businesses in the form of Formula One, Grand Prix motorcycle racing and World Superbikes’. Great.
Races 2 and 3 were on when I've been out, before I'd have not checked any social media and watched the replay, but chatting to friends who've done the same, when you watch the replay, the timeline bar for DH shows you when the winning run was, essentially removing the drama of is the time good enough to stay in the hot seat or will anyone beat it.
Thankfully that seems to have changed for Leogang. I understand wanting people to be able to quickly navigate on a replay but just timestamp start, top 20, top 10 & top 5 starters or something, not the podium runs (and crashes)!
I'd not be watching if TNT wasn't a free add-on to my phone contract. Much like every other sport I just don't see the value in it at £30/m and I don't use TNT for much else other than the odd footy game I happen to be around for. Also not helped by them not having an app for my TV platform.
I suspect or maybe just hope that the golden era of gouging UK residents for sports channels is coming to an end, and we'll finally be able to get individual sports coverage / pricing, or free to air if we are really lucky.
Would be great, but the costs involved in broadcasting all these sports isn't small, so unlikely to happen any time soon.
No idea, I don't watch any of this...but I'm aware that filming and broadcasting all this costs an absolute fortune, so you need many people paying to cover the costs and even more people paying to make a profit.
My Netflix subscription is £18.99 a month. If TNT charged similar, I’d be on board with that. For the time being, I watch road cycling on SBS, watch XCC & XCO highlights on YouTube and don’t bother with DH.
This weekend I’m using the FIAWEC app to watch Le Mans for £15. If I could watch a weekend of MTB for that sort of money I’d be happy.
the costs involved in broadcasting all these sports isn't small, so unlikely to happen any time soon
Freecaster and Red bull somehow managed to broadcast it for free for years. I'm assuming they weren't doing it out of the goodness of their own heart
Red Bull used it as marketing...spent a fortune on it, used it as marketing and made a far bigger fortune off their product sales - that is well known, it was also well known that it was done to market their product.
It made more sense for them to do it than it does for a broadcasting company to do it in terms of advertising opportunities.
I suspect £6.99 a month was enough to support a product that only showed cycling like GCN+. However, the new model is not for people who just like cycling. It's for general sport fans so the only option is to pay for every sport. If you want to watch every sport then £30 is probably reasonable.
However, people who just like to watch sport I suspect don't really do sports. We watch cycling because we like bikes. I have time to cycle and to watch some races. I have no interest in watching any other sports.
Like I said earlier, with GCN+ we were the target audience. With WBD their target audience isn't us. It's people who like to watch sport in general.
I suspect £6.99 a month was enough to support a product that only showed cycling like GCN+. However, the new model is not for people who just like cycling. It's for general sport fans so the only option is to pay for every sport. If you want to watch every sport then £30 is probably reasonable.
However, people who just like to watch sport I suspect don't really do sports. We watch cycling because we like bikes. I have time to cycle and to watch some races. I have no interest in watching any other sports.
Like I said earlier, with GCN+ we were the target audience. With WBD their target audience isn't us. It's people who like to watch sport in general.
I'm not even convinced it's that you know. I was looking the other day and there's Tennins, Ski jumping, Speedway, MotoGP, squash, cricket, Darts, cycling, along with 20-30 more. I don't think WBD bought 'cycling' or even gave any thoughts to who will watch what, i think it was more a case of "we're buying Eurosport" which part of that came in with Cycling of course.
I doubt we'll ever know the answer but it would be interesting to get viewing figures for the Dauphine, or the Giro and of course the Tour to see how it's all going.
I don't think MTB is ever going to reach mainstream, but i guess we could say that about all the other 'minority' sports on there from Rock Climbing to Badminton.
i think it was more a case of "we're buying Eurosport" which part of that came in with Cycling of course.
Yeah, but if you remember they also bought GCN+ and shut it down.
They could have kept it running with the same subscription model but they chose to close it and shift everyone to their own streaming service. Then they made everyone move to their general sport package.
Of course, it may be they never actually planned anything and this is just the desperate thrashings of a corporate entity that took on too much debt...
I'm still really annoyed about losing GCN+, tbh. Especially since it seemed to be, if not a goldmine, at the very least sustainable.
£6.99 a month was cheap enough that I used to keep it rolling.
£31.00 a month is very much in the territory of cancel as soon as an event is over.
I think the only way Sky survives is they cling on like a limpet to their 12/18/24 month contract model, so stop people flip-flopping.
£31.00 is very much in the "screw that, ill find a dodgy stream" territory
